Let’s talk about flying today 😊
Southwest Michigan Regional Airport (KBEH), located at 1123 Territorial Rd, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, is owned by the cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph.
One member represents each of the six municipalities on the Airport Authority Board. The Authority Board meets monthly on the third Thursday and are held in the Airport Conference Room and are open to the public.
As an alternate member for the Lincoln Charter Township I try to attend all the meeting to keep abreast of what is happening in the event the primary member is absent.
The view I had as I drove onto the airport this mid-morning sparked my flying topic for today. “O say can you see”
VFR vs IFR
Visual Flight Rules vs Instrument Flight Rules
VFR (Visual Flight Rules) is straight forward. That is when in relatively clear weather conditions, you can fly a plane solely by reference to outside visual cues, such as the horizon to maintain orientation, nearby buildings and terrain features for navigation, and other aircraft to maintain separation.
This is known as operating the aircraft under VFR and is the most common mode of operation for small aircraft. However, it is safe to fly VFR only when these outside references can be clearly seen from a sufficient distance.
If flying through or above clouds, or in fog, rain, dust or similar low-level weather conditions, these references can be obscured. Thus, cloud ceiling and flight visibility are the most important variables for safe operations during all phases of flight.
Typical daytime VFR minimums for most airspace is 3 statute miles of flight visibility and a distance from clouds of 500′ below, 1,000′ above, and 2,000′ feet horizontally. Flight conditions reported as equal to or greater than these VFR minimums are referred to as visual meteorological conditions (VMC).
IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) are established by the FAA to govern flight under conditions in which flight by outside visual reference is not safe. IFR flight depends upon flying by reference to instruments in the cockpit/ flight deck, and navigation is accomplished by reference to electronic signals.
The main purpose of IFR is the safe operation of aircraft in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Usually required when the weather is considered to be marginal under visual flight rules (MVFR) or when it does not meet the minimum requirements for visual meteorological conditions (VMC). To operate safely in IMC (“actual instrument conditions”), a pilot is controlling the aircraft by relying on flight instruments.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? Only fly VFR when you can see!
As a side note, there was a poll taken in 2018 by “Pilots of America” that asked how many times did you fly VFR into IMC (VFR weather)?
Of the 116 responses, 56.6% said NEVER, 23.3% said only once, 9.5% said twice and 3.6 % said three times and 3.4% said 8 or more times.
At some stage in your flying you will encounter bad weather—unless you only fly on perfect weather days. Spatial disorientation is the big danger. And it can happen a lot faster than you might think.
In the 1990s by aviation researchers at the University of Illinois. They took 20 VFR pilots and got them to fly into IMC in specially programmed flight simulators.
All the pilots in the study went into graveyard spirals that would have ended in uncontrolled flight into terrain or rollercoaster-like oscillations that became so intense that they would have resulted in structural failure of the aircraft.
In repeated tests on the simulator the result was the same—all pilots lost control of the aircraft. The outcome differed only in the time required before control was lost which ranged from just 20 seconds to 480 seconds.
Always remember that flying into IMC is a top killer of pilots. Headwinds, wishful thinking and “Get Home-Itis” will get you killed.
The following videos are very informative and educational. Fly Safe!
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=179+Seconds+to+Live&&view=detail&mid=27F5CDDB86B21E1FE20627F5CDDB86B21E1FE206&&FORM=VDRVRV